Ogre09 said:

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We would lay down the backseats of the station wagon and make a pallet back there for sleeping on long road trips.

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My father made a small platform to place over the back seat floorboards in our sedan to align with the top of the rear seat. Room for 4 kids to sleep.

Quantum Entanglement said:

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Reminded me: We would chase behind the mosquito truck until we couldn't keep up then the fog cloud would surround us as we gasped for air. I don't want to even think about possible consequences in my old age.

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You are probably free of parasites.

Meh. This guy did it better.

https://www.tiktok.com/discover/the-guy-explains-drinking-from-the-hose

Was all but impossible to set off a cap with the pistol you got. Cheap piece of crap. It invariably came down to a hammer on the back patio.

I considered myself lucky to get 3 pops in a row from caps. Usually 1 and sometimes two. The feed didn't work well so only the first shot was guaranteed if lined it up well. I remember the smell. Definitely popped the caps with a hammer on the driveway. No safety goggles (:

3-man water balloon slingshots.

We would launch and hit the roofs of our neighbors, hide, and watch them come out, walk around wandering what the hell was going. Then we'd do it again. Only broke one window (that was my cousin's fault) which we paid to replace.

Also...
- dirt clod wars at empty lots in the neighborhood
- riding bikes in the drainage ditch
- some light B&E at vacant homes so we could hang out and look at nudie magazines

Good times.

ETA: my little brother and I were rough. my mom had to take us to the ER 3 times in one week. Injuries included a hockey stick to the eye (my brother, he's a pilot now. Lol) and dog bite from a neighbor's dog (me). Don't remember the reason for the 3rd visit...

We had a period where we had chinaberry gun wars. They were fashioned out of a 2' length of 1x4, a strip of tire innertube and a clothespin glued in place as a "trigger". Very effective and fairly accurate.

It wouldn't surprise me if someone bottled actual water from a hose and marketed it as such. I know one old dude that would at least give it a try.

deadhead aggie said:

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you had three options for these and no, using the gun wasn't one of them.......

1. pop one at a time with a hammer
2. pop the full roll with a hammer
3. bite them one at a time

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we used to scrape the tops off and pour the powder onto a piece of foil that you could pull off from a piece of wrigley's gum. when you have enough, roll it up and make a little fuse. I don't remember what we made the fuses from. it would make a nice little firecracker!

AggieArchitect04 said:

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deadhead aggie said:

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you had three options for these and no, using the gun wasn't one of them.......

1. pop one at a time with a hammer
2. pop the full roll with a hammer
3. bite them one at a time

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These worked better, but only marginally...

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Sir it is absolutely impossible to disagree with you more. I've put about 300 of these through my revolvers and not only were there never misfires / duds, the pop was 2-3 times louder. They worked because the cylinder rotated faithfully. The issue is that they were much more expensive and then of course the paper caps became increasingly hard to find.

ptothemo said:

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dabo man said:

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You have to let it run until it cools off (or just drink straight from the faucet).

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And you couldn't always trust the first time that it felt cool to the touch. There was inevitably some scalding hot water that had hidden in a corner somewhere that was ready to get you if you did.

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And NEVER trust a guy holding the hose several feet away - you'd get a trickle or "'Ol Faceful".

HoseMad said:

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still do, but as an adult im just too lazy to kick my boots off and go inside for a glass of water

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Username checks out

I drank from the hose last weekend and my wife looked at me like I'd lost my mind. Millennial who grew up the way that lady described as well.

Harkening back to the days when a hatchet was a toy.

jja79 said:

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Harkening back to the days when a hatchet was a toy.

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And pocket knives

Sunscreen? We put Coppertone on to make sure we maximized the suns rays. We also had to bring nail polish remover to get the tar off our feet and legs. Then we'd pile into the back of a truck and head back home. Great times.

We had a very old and established forsythia hedge in our yard that went all along the entire edge of our property. I would spend hours a day playing inside the hedge. I had cut a tunnel all the way through so I could crawl the length of the hedge from end to end, and then I had "bases" set up at wider spaces. I imagined I was Indiana Jones spelunking for antiquities and would be filthy with ripped jeans and sticks in my hair.

Where is your kid Mrs. Cobra? "Oh, playing in the hedge again."

My dad provided a complete toy box. We never lacked for wooden matches and lighter fluid, box cutters, balpine hammer, everything a 10 year old boy needed for fun.

How are you people still alive?

Surely you wore helmets when on your bikes? Surely your parents were active in arranging play dates? Are you in therapy because you got spanked for sucker punching a much smaller kid?

Quantum Entanglement said:

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How are you people still alive?

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Easy, duct tape and bailing wire.

Quantum Entanglement said:

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How are you people still alive?

Surely you wore helmets when on your bikes? Surely your parents were active in arranging play dates? Are you in therapy because you got spanked for sucker punching a much smaller kid?

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My parents literally had a bugle they would blow when I needed to be home. I am not kidding. The goal was that I would return early so that I did not have to be humiliated by being summoned by the bugle

That's how the first Reveille felt so she arrived early to the first call.

I used to look forward to Saturdays. Me and my grandpa would get away. We'd hop in his pickup truck and go to town.
We had a couple chores, but it didn't take long before we were through. So we'd let the pickup truck just wander around.

Peen
You typed peen

I rode my dirt bike (spiked pedals) bare foot and always had bloody toe tips from dragging the ground to stop. We also had those flat style go carts, no seat belts, and flew out on curves taken too fast.

We had an old chicken coop as a playhouse and no lung issues. We played in the drainage ditch of dad's cotton crops when they were full of water and God knows what chemicals mixed in. We were never sick.

Best childhood ever.

You should have worn proper footwear without exposed laces, a helmet, knee pads and arm pads, gloves, an epi pen nearby lest a wasp or bee sting you, and constant adult supervision. Of course an approved bicycle riding safety course goes without saying.

Emotional Support Cobra said:

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Quantum Entanglement said:

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How are you people still alive?

Surely you wore helmets when on your bikes? Surely your parents were active in arranging play dates? Are you in therapy because you got spanked for sucker punching a much smaller kid?

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My parents literally had a bugle they would blow when I needed to be home. I am not kidding. The goal was that I would return early so that I did not have to be humiliated by being summoned by the bugle

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My cousin's house was kinda Grand Central Station for kids in his neighborhood.

When we all went to another house or yard or the park or the church yard or the fire station to play or do dumb stuff like bust out lights with pieces of brick or really hard dirt clods, my aunt would step outside and whistle when it was time to come home.

You could hear it for blocks.

In the Star Trek remake, when Kirk is in the bar fight and Pike shows up and whistles and everyone stops what they were doing? That might have been modeled after my aunt's whistle.

It might as well have been a bugle. We would all hightail it home. Lots of other kids would show up just to see if this was a case of her handing out popsicles, or handing out ass whippings. You just never knew.

Toy guns so realistic your parents would warn you not to get shot by the police when playing outside.

I had a cap gun almost exactly like this:

gigemags-99 said:

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Neighborhood street football. "On 2, everybody just go long"…"CAR!!"

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I lived on a cul-de-sac for a number of years growing up, and there were lots of kids on our street. We would set up very official looking traffic barriers to stop people from coming down the street. One of the adults on the street was a police officer, and he would just happen to park his squad car near the barriers when he was off or home for the day.

Full court basketball, hockey, soccer, etc was not to be interrupted by those car things.

When people talk about the 90s and how things were, that neighborhood is always the first thing I think about.